Bio
Dr. Kaustubha Raghukumar is an oceanographer with a solid background in physical oceanography, ocean acoustics, and wave propagation physics, and has authored a number of peer-reviewed scientific papers in this area. He has 15 years of experience in modeling and at-sea measurements of hydrodynamic processes, such as ocean circulation, surface waves, internal waves, and underwater sound. He has participated in several international at-sea experiments that focused on the impact of oceanographic fluctuations on ocean acoustic propagation, and he continues to develop state-of-the-art acoustic monitoring techniques and technologies for the U.S. Department of Energy and the Office of Naval Research. He is concurrently involved in modeling efforts to assimilate wave measurements into regional wave models and to examine the potential environmental effects of marine renewable energy devices.
Relevant Experience
Oceanography
Offshore Wind and Upwelling, California Energy Commission — Served as technical lead for an atmosphere-ocean modeling effort to understand the effect of energy extraction by floating offshore wind turbines on coastal upwelling.
Measurement Buoy Development, Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy — Developed algorithms and performed field validation for a low-cost wave measurement buoy, the Spotter, developed by Spoondrift, Integral, and Sandia National Laboratories.
Matilija Dam Removal, California — Developed nearshore, phase-resolved wave models to accurately advect expected sediment loads following the removal of the Matilija Dam on the Ventura River and inform long-term shoreline change.
Vandenberg Unexploded Ordnance Study, Point Sal, Central California — Led a 3-month field effort to examine the long-term fate and transport of unexploded munitions under the influence of physical forcing, such as waves and currents.
R&D
Optical Imaging of Ensonified Ocean Waves, Office of Naval Research — Acted as technical lead to characterize surface gravity capillary waves induced by underwater acoustic fields with the goal of achieving rapid bathymetric mapping via in-air acoustic sources.
NoiseSpotter, U.S. Department of Energy — Lead the development of a vector sensor array with real-time telemetry to monitor the acoustic output of marine renewable energy devices, ultimately to help abate risk associated with sound from marine renewable energy installations.
Inner Shelf Direct Research Initiative, Office of Naval Research — Performed experimental design, field efforts, and data analysis to characterize transmission loss in the surf zone and to examine the effect of bubble plumes in attenuating sound.
Ecological Modeling
Ecosystem Model, MEGAMER Facility, University of California, Santa Cruz — Implemented a coupled ecosystem model (ROMS) of the California Current System and studied the biological impact of assimilating physical oceanographic data. Proposed a simple method to mitigate the deleterious effects of physical data assimilation while simultaneously preserving improvements following data assimilation.
Education & Credentials
Ph.D., Oceanography, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California, 2009
M.S., Telecommunications, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, New Jersey, 2003
B.E., Electronics and Telecommunications, Goa University, Goa, India, 2000
Continuing Education
Research Associate, Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California, 2015
Postdoctoral Fellow, University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, California, 2012
Professional Affiliations
Member of the Acoustical Society of America
Member of the American Geophysical Union
Other
Publications
Heal, K., and K. Raghukumar. 2025. Underwater soundscape and vector acoustic observations during a seismic airgun survey near coastal Oregon. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 157:3848–3859. https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0036728.
Raghukumar, K., K. Heal, F. Spada, G. Chang, S. Henkel, T. Chapple, and S. Heppel. 2023. Acoustic measurements during a seismic airgun survey: The case of the Cascadia Subduction Zone. In: The Effects of Noise in Aquatic Life. A.N. Popper et al. (eds). Springer Nature, Switzerland. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-10417-6_131-1.
Raghukumar, K., T. Nelson, M. Jacox, C. Chartrand, J. Fiechter, G. Chang, L. Cheung, and J. Roberts. 2023. Cross-shore changes in upwelling from offshore wind farm development in California. Comm. Earth Environ. 4: 116. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-023-00780-y.
Macrander, A.M., L. Brzuzy, K. Raghukumar, D. Preziosi, and C. Jones. 2022. Convergence of emerging technologies: Development of a risk‐based paradigm for marine mammal monitoring for offshore wind energy operations. Integr. Environ. Assess. Manage. 18(4):939–949.
Raghukumar, K., C. Chartrand, G. Chang, L. Cheung, and J. Roberts. 2022. Effect of floating offshore wind turbines on atmospheric circulation in California. Front. Energy Res. 10:863995. https://doi.org/10.3389/fenrg.2022.863995.
Raghukumar, K., G. Chang, F. Spada, and C. Jones. 2020. A vector sensor-based acoustic characterization system for marine renewable energy. J. Mar. Sci. Engr. 8(3):187. https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse8030187.
Raghukumar, K., G. Chang, F.W. Spada, and C.A. Jones. 2019. NoiseSpotter: A rapidly deployable acoustic monitoring and localization system. In: Proc. of the 13th European Wave and Tidal Energy Conference. D. Vicinanza et al. (eds). European Wave and Tidal Energy Conference, Naples, Italy.
Raghukumar, K., G. Chang, F. Spada, C. Jones, J. Spence, S. Griffin, and J. Roberts. 2019. Performance characteristics of a vector sensor array in an energetic tidal channel. pp. 653–658. In: Proc. of the 5th Underwater Acoustics Conference and Exhibition. J.S. Papadakis (ed). Underwater Acoustics Conference and Exhibition, Crete, Greece.
Jones, C., G. Chang, A. Dallman, J. Roberts, K. Raghukumar, and S. McWilliams. 2019. Assessment of wave energy resources and factors affecting conversion. In: Offshore Technology Conference. B. Carrier and D. Ball (eds). Offshore Technology Conference, Houston, TX. https://doi.org/10.4043/29570-MS.
Raghukumar, K., S. McWilliams, G. Chang, J. Roberts, and C. Jones. 2019. Wave energy converter arrays: Optimizing power production while minimizing environmental effects. In: Offshore Technology Conference. C. Jones and J. Chitwood (eds). Offshore Technology Conference, Houston, TX. https://doi.org/10.4043/29658-MS.
Raghukumar, K., G. Chang, F.W. Spada, and C.A. Jones. 2019. Performance characteristics of the NoiseSpotter: An acoustic monitoring and localization system. In: Offshore Technology Conference. A. Cooper and P. Gibbs (eds). Offshore Technology Conference, Houston, TX. https://doi.org/10.4043/29425-MS.
Raghukumar, K., G. Chang, F. Spada, C. Jones, W. Gans, and T. Janssen. 2019. Performance characteristic of Spotter, a newly developed real-time wave measurement buoy. J. Atmos. Ocean. Tech. https://doi.org/10.1175/JTECH-D-18-0151.1.
Jones, C., G. Chang, K. Raghukumar, S. McWilliams, A. Dallman, and J. Roberts. 2018. Spatial Environmental Assessment Tool (SEAT): A modeling tool to evaluate potential environmental risks associated with wave energy converter deployments. Energies 11(8):2036. https://doi.org/10.3390/en11082036.
Raghukumar, K., C.A. Edwards, N.L. Goebel, G. Broquet, M. Veneziani, A.M. Moore, and J.P. Zehr. 2015. Impact of assimilating physical oceanographic data on modeled ecosystem dynamics in the California Current System. Prog. Oceanogr. 138:546–558.
Raghukumar, K., and J.A. Colosi. 2015. High frequency normal mode statistics in a shallow water waveguide: The combined effect of random linear surface and internal waves. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 137:2950–2961.
Raghukumar, K., and J.A. Colosi. 2014. High frequency normal mode statistics in a shallow water waveguide: The effect of random linear internal waves. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 136:66–79.
Raghukumar, K., B.D. Cornuelle, W.S. Hodgkiss, and W.A. Kuperman. 2010. Experimental demonstration of the utility of pressure sensitivity kernels in time-reversal. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 128:989–1003.
Raghukumar, K., B.D. Cornuelle, W.S. Hodgkiss, and W.A. Kuperman. 2008. Sensitivity analysis applied to time-reversal acoustics. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 124:98–112.
Song, H.C., W.S. Hodgkiss, W.A. Kuperman, W.J. Higley, K. Raghukumar, T. Akal, and M. Stevenson. 2006. Spatial diversity in passive time reversal communications. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 120:2067–2076.
Wang, S., K. Raghukumar, A. Abdi, J. Wallace, and M. Jensen. 2004. Indoor MIMO channels: A parametric correlation model and experimental results. pp. 1–5. In: Proc. of IEEE/Sarnoff Symposium on Advances in Wired and Wireless Communication. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Princeton, NJ.
Chakraborty, B., K. Raghukumar, A. Hegde, and A. Pereira. 2001. Acoustic seafloor sediment classification using self-organizing feature maps. IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing 39:2722–2725.
Presentations / Posters
Raghukumar, K., and F. Spada. 2020. Observations of acoustic intensity fluctuations recorded during the Inner Shelf DRI experiment. Poster presentation at the Ocean Sciences Meeting. American Geophysical Union, Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography, and The Oceanography Society, San Diego, CA. February 16–21.
Spada, F., K. Raghukumar, G. Chang, and C. Jones. 2020. NoiseSpotter: Real-time underwater acoustic characterization in support of marine renewable energy projects. Poster presentation at the Ocean Sciences Meeting. American Geophysical Union, Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography, and The Oceanography Society, San Diego, CA. February 16–21.
Jones, C., S. McWilliams, K. Raghukumar, G. Chang, and J. Roberts. 2020. Optimization of wave energy converter array deployments while minimizing potential environmental risks. Platform presentation at the 2020 Ocean Sciences Meeting. American Geophysical Union, Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography, and The Oceanography Society, San Diego, CA. February 16–21.
Jones, C., K. Raghukumar, and L. Marx. 2019. Assessment of natural hazard vulnerability and resilience in coastal environments. Poster presentation at SERDP ESTCP Symposium. Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program and Environmental Security Technology Certification Program, Washington, DC. December 3–5.
Raghukumar, K., C. Jones, J. Weidenbach, S. Kleinhelder, K. Catlett, and P. Black. 2019. An offshore munitions mobility study at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. Poster presentation at SERDP ESTCP Symposium. Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program and Environmental Security Technology Certification Program, Washington, DC. December 3–5.
Raghukumar, K., F.W. Spada, G. Chang, and C. Jones. 2019. Characterization of near-bed particle motion by the NoiseSpotter: A three-dimensional vector sensor array. Poster presentation at 5th International Conference on the Effects of Noise on Aquatic Life. Den Haag, The Netherlands. July 7–12.
Raghukumar, K., G. Chang, F. Spada, and C. Jones. 2019. NoiseSpotter: New technology for underwater acoustic characterization. Poster presentation at 6th Annual Marine Energy Technology Symposium. Washington, DC. April 1–3.
Raghukumar, K., S. McWilliams, C. Jones, and J. Roberts. 2019. Marine hydrokinetic energy assessment: Balancing efficiency and environmental concerns. Poster presentation at 6th Annual Marine Energy Technology Symposium. Washington, DC. April 1–3.
Scheu, K., C. Flanary, K. Raghukumar, C. Jones, L. Ziliani, B. Groppelli, S. Ceccon, and D. Bocchiola. 2019. Evaluating climate change effects on natural recovery of a contaminated sediment site. Platform presentation at Tenth International Conference on the Remediation and Management of Contaminated Sediments, New Orleans, LA. February 11–14.
Raghukumar, K., K. Scheu, F. Spada, and C. Jones. 2018. Observations of acoustic intensity fluctuations and ambient noise in the surf zone. Oral presentation. 176th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America. November 4–9, Victoria, BC, Canada.
Scheu, K., C. Flanary, K. Raghukumar, and C. Jones. 2018. Evaluation of climate change effects on natural recovery in an alpine lake. Platform presentation. SETAC North America 39th Annual Meeting, November 4–8, Sacramento, CA.
Raghukumar, K., F. Spada, G. Chang, and C. Jones. 2018. Initial field trials of the NoiseSpotter: An acoustic monitoring and localization system. Oral presentation at the 6th Annual Marine Energy Technology Symposium, April 30–May 2, Washington, DC.
Raghukumar, K., G. Chang, and C. Jones. 2018. Improved sea state characterization in support of marine renewable energy projects. Poster presented at 6th Annual Marine Energy Technology Symposium, April 30–May 2, Washington, DC.
Raghukumar, K., F. Spada, G. Chang, and C. Jones. 2018. Spatial characterization of surface waves using an array of newly developed wave buoys. Poster presented at the Ocean Sciences Meeting. Co- sponsored by the American Geophysical Union, the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography, and The Oceanography Society, February 11–16, Portland, OR.
Spada, F., G. Chang, C. Jones, K. Raghukumar, P. Barney, W. Gans, T. Janssen, and Z. Kirshner. 2018. A motion-controlled wave buoy test stand for high fidelity data validation. Poster presented at the Ocean Sciences Meeting. Co-sponsored by the American Geophysical Union, the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography, and The Oceanography Society, February 11–16, Portland, OR.
Raghukumar, K., J.A. Colosi, Y.-T. Lin, A. Newhall, T. Duda, K. Becker, and P. Hines. 2014. Comparison of shallow water mode transport theory with acoustic transmissions during shallow water experiment 2006. 167th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, Providence, RI.
Raghukumar, K., and J.A. Colosi. 2013. The effect of surface and linear internal waves on higher order acoustic moments in shallow water. 21st International Congress on Acoustics, Montreal, Canada.
Raghukumar, K., and J.A. Colosi. 2012. Transport theory applied to shallow water acoustics: The relative importance of surface scattering and linear internal waves. 164th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, Kansas City, MO.
Raghukumar, K., N. Goebel, M. Veneziani, C. Edwards, G. Broquet, and A. Moore. 2011. Impact of assimilating physical oceanographic information on a complex ecosystem model in the California Current System. ASLO Aquatic Sciences Meeting, Puerto Rico.
Raghukumar, K., B.D. Cornuelle, W.S. Hodgkiss, and W.A. Kuperman. 2008. Optimized source functions based on pressure sensitivity kernels. Acoustical Society of America–European Society of Acoustics ’08, Paris, France.
Raghukumar, K., B.D. Cornuelle, W.S. Hodgkiss, and W.A. Kuperman. 2007. Sensitivity analysis applied to time-reversal acoustics. 154th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, New Orleans.
Raghukumar, K., P. Roux, W.S. Hodgkiss, and W.A. Kuperman. 2003. Towards multichannel underwater communications using time reversal. 146th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, Austin.
Invited Participant, Expert Panels, and Workshops
Offshore wind and upwelling. Pacific Ocean Energy Trust public webinar, June 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKs3nKMWoBQ.
PNNL Acoustic Particle Motion Workshop for Marine Energy. May 2022.
Subject matter expert for the Environmental Compliance Cost Assessment target research working group, to identify and prioritize targeted research and recommended practices on acoustics for the marine and hydrokinetic industry.
Marine hydrokinetic energy toolkit webinar. March 2021.
The acoustical and biological relevance of internal waves and spice. Moss Landing Marine Labs, Moss Landing, California. November 2014.
Introduction to ocean acoustics. Moss Landing Marine Labs, Moss Landing, California. September 2014.